Council approves purchase of replacement lights for ball fields, Narrows property sale
By BRITTANY FHOLER
Cove Leader-Press
The Copperas Cove City Council approved the purchase and installation of replacement lighting for ball field 4 and multipurpose field 9 during its regular meeting Tuesday evening.
The current lighting system at the field 4 is not up to code, while multipurpose field 9 does not have any source of lighting, making it unusable when it is dark outside.
Practices are held on ballfield 4 for the 14U boy’s baseball league Monday through Friday during nighttime hours. The lack of lighting on multipurpose field 9 forces soccer practices and games to be held in the outfield areas of the ballfields.
The city received three quotes to replace and install the lighting from Musco Sports Lighting LLC, Qualite Sports Lighting LLC and Spark Lighting LLC.
Musco Sports Lighting LLC previously installed the lighting system on ballfield n umber 5 and multipurpose field 8 back in 2009. Because of this and the service received, city staff recommended the council approve Musco as the vendor, for a cost of $408,421.00.
The council also accepted the contract between the Copperas Cove Economic Development Corporation and Fieldstone Commercial, LLC to purchase 10.207 acres in the Narrows Business Technology Park for “Project Gateway.” The CCEDC approved the contract during their February 26 meeting. The agreement will allow Fieldstone Commercial LLC to purchase and develop the property for specific businesses as agreed upon between the EDC and Fieldstone.
The council also adopted a proposed ordinance on regulations governing open burning. Burning is permitted by the city for a $100 per day site fee but is only regulated by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality guidelines distributed by the Fire Marshal’s Office.
“I want to emphasize that this is not an attempt to ban or discontinue open burning in the city but make it more amenable to the community,” said Copperas Cove Fire Chief Michael Neujahr during Tuesday’s workshop meeting.
The changes proposed, such as multi-day permitting and the advanced issuing of permitting with the understanding of developers that they still must comply with the requirements of the proposed ordinance, make it easier to burn.
The proposed ordinance follows TCEQ guidelines with respect to hours of burning, distances, wind speeds and nuisance abatement.
The city council also held a public hearing before approving the rezoning request by Rosanna Brown of God’s Little Angels Day Care to rezone 301 S. 2nd Street from R-1 (Single Family Residential) to B-4 (General Retail District).
The rezoning is for the purpose of renovation and addition to existing property, including additional parking spaces.
The city council held another public hearing before the approval of Ordinance No. 2020-19 to add Appendix C-Parks Master Plan to the 2020 Comprehensive Plan adopted on January 21, 2020.